Paper Example on The Lords of Dogtown: Revolutionizing Skate & Surf in West California

The movie The Lord of Dogtown presents three boys who revolutionized the skating and surfing sports in Los Angeles California. Today, west California enjoys a rich culture of surfing that was pioneered by a group of youths, who were occasionally referred to as misfits due to their counterculture. The skater surfers would train unconventionally and break people's homes to use their dry pools. The skater surfers in the movie embraced their countercultural reputation for being bad boys by inventing the aerial skating and being rough on a sport that was frowned by the mainstream society at the time as opposed by their predecessors.

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Z boys embraced their counterculture as bad boys by being unruly and rigorous on their combination of skating and surfing games. In the 1970s, mainstream society frowned at skateboarding since it was not common in West Lost Angeles. A decade before, surfing had become popular on the Coast of California, especially in Malibu. Westwick and Neushul note that "in post-war Southern California, technology, demographics, economics, and culture combined to create the surf boom" (106). Surfing became very popular among the youth in the 1950s and 1960s in such a way that it led to the emergence of surf music and influenced movie creation. Westwick and Neushul write "a couple of dozen miles from Malibu, Hollywood and the music business helped American pop culture glom on to the California surf scene" (110). Nevertheless, in the 1970s, a group of teenagers formed working in a local surfboard shop changed how society perceived the sport. The Zephyr team became not only avid surfers but also skateboarders. On waveless days, the Z boys (Zephyr Surf Team) would get into the streets with their skateboards to practice. It is their mode of skating and tricks that primarily earned them their revered reputation as they brought life into the shady slums of Dogtown. When Southern California was hit by a major drought in the 1970s, many swimming pools in the neighbourhoods were left dry and unattended, the Z Boys perceived it as an opportunity to try new tricks that involved skating in the barren swimming pools. Notably, the community termed them as misfits as they were constantly chased from their pools. Additionally, they would even break into people's homes to use the pools, which put them under the police radar most of the time (Hardwicke 45:58). Later, their mode of skating and attitude towards the sport would attract and entertain others who opted to help get into skateboarding competitions. Sponsors offered to pay them to skate and even sold skateboards with their names branded on the merchandise.

Additionally, the Z Boys counterculture led to the invention of aerial skateboarding in southern California. Before the drought, surfing in curved spaces was not popular; however, the Z boys utilized the opportunity to create a subculture of skating that is popular today. Notably, the boys would ride the walls of the swimming pools and over the rails, which made them know as the first skateboarders to catch air. The style of moving out and reentering the bowl created a revolution in Dogtown's culture, which was initially famous for graffiti and surfing. The vertical and airborne style stirred them into stardom in the Del Mar Nationals skateboard competition in 1975. They became the living legends of skateboarding due to their style, which was spreading fast across the country.

The Z Boys revolutionized the skateboard culture in southern California earning them the reputation of being legends. The Z team members were not only avid surfers but also revolutionary skateboarders. They embraced their countercultural reputation as bad boys by being training unruly and inventing the vertical and aerial skateboarding method. During the drought in the 1970s in southern California, the skater-surfers perceived the dry pools as an opportunity to try new skating tricks. Although their training methods earned them a reputation of being misfits, the community later embraced their style, making them legends of the sport.

Works Cited

Lords of Dogtown. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, performances by Heath Ledger, Emile Hirsch, and Victor Rasuk. Sony Picture Entertainment Company, 2005.

Westwick, Peter & Neushul, Peter. The World in the Curl: An Unconventional History of Surfing. New York, Crown Publishers, 2013.